


just like fire

by Control_Room



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Character Study, Fire, Tightropes, Time - Freeform, quantum phsyics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room
Summary: No one could be like him.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7





	just like fire

Have you ever seen a bunsen burner?

Nearly clear and then blue, flickers of purple.

Joey’s hair was just like that fire-- though white instead of prismic. 

He did not mind. He was too busy to care that a man as young as himself was going white, it was no concern of his.

Joey’s concerns were: employees; studio; family; family; work; work; work; family; work.

Time, time, damn time.

He smiled.

Doing his job was like being on a tightrope. A very high up and barely attached tightrope wearing dress shoes that very clearly were not meant to be used on a tightrope walk. But he managed, and managed quite well. 

Even when the tightrope was on fire from raging deadlines and fuming letters from Disney, Fleischer, and his own employees, and he knew but did not acknowledge that no one really understood the stress of his job, or why he drank too much, far too much, Coca-cola every day, and on the days when he did not drink it he seemed a little different in a strange way, but that was just the way he coped with the burning tightrope, running as fast as he could, merging with the flames in eternal dance, helping those less fortunate than him up to their feet and boosting them along their journey of life.

Joey did not wear watches. 

Why should he?

He was running to the top, anyways, clocks were all around him, time being shouted at all hours of the day. He made his own time, and when people asked how he managed it all in just twenty four hours, he merely replied that he does it in thirty six. 

No one would believe him if he explained in full, no one would understand what he would mean by pockets and flight with his feet on the ceiling, no one would, so why bother to explain?

Joey grinned madly, almost laughing giddily, but he restrained himself from doing so. 

It was not exactly  _ funny _ but it was  _ his _ thing, and no one else could have it. Even people who could potentially have it would not be able to steal it from him. 

He was always running, and always made for himself places to rest, disappearing from the crowd he stood head and shoulders over without a second glance in the area he had been a moment before. 

Just like fire. 

It was like magic-- but it was not.

Johan could explain it if he wanted to. 

_ If _ .

And the answer to that?

Hell no. He was the only one who got this secret.

His madness, his magic, his flight, his fire. 

There was no wickedness to it, just science, and through science, soul.

No games, no strings. 

Just him, the fire in his soul. He burned bright enough to light up the whole world.

No one could be like him. 

He ran on his tightrope, and he burned it under his own feet, flying on thin air.

Just like fire. 


End file.
